Filming council meetings - petition
Posted by on the 28th May 2011
I see that RCT council are getting jittery about members of the public filming etc council meetings. Following my experiences with Carmarthenshire County Council (please have a look at my blog; www.carmarthenplanning.blogspot.com) I have started a petition on the Welsh Assembly petitions website (http://www.assemblywales.org/gethome/e-petitions/epetition-list-of-signa...) to insist that not only should Councils webcast all meeting but also allow members of the public to film, record, etc. This does actually happen in some more enlightened councils in England. Please sign if you agree, it will apply to all councils, not just Carmarthenshire. There is no excuse nor even a legal reason why people in the public gallery should not film, tweet or whatever, a public meeting, to reach the wider electorate. It is not against the law, nor even a by-law - just council policy/preference - please support my campaign - it's for everyone.
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Despite all their protestations and assurances to the contrary, we are still a society cloaked in secrecy. We have for instance the most draconian libel laws in the Western world, with people from other countries using those laws to silence criticism.
So bad is it that President Obama is soon to bring in legislation in America that will not allow Americans to be sued in British courts under these laws.
Politicians, and our own right here in RCT are no exception, do not like open government. Why that should be you can draw your own conclusions from, but we've all seen certain things happen over the years that cried out for investigation, but that were sealed off from scrutiny even before we had the chance to cry foul.
Britain as a whole is not free and transparent in many things. True, the MPs' expenses were exposed, and certain corrupt practices have been revealed, and of course in many cases corruption is so blatant because it's been made legal! By that I mean that the councillors' claims, and the salaries paid to the top honchos in our public services, are all there for us to see, but to me it's still corruption on a massive scale; particulaly when they have the gall to tell us that we're all in it together.
The country's in a financial mess because of corruption, but that doesn't stop the milking of the system by councillors, top executives and other unworthies. And all this as they dare to make cuts in services that are sorely needed by the vulnerable. Still, do you seriously think a councillor considers any of that when he fills in his claims form? Not bloody likely. The snouts are in the trough as deep as they can push them.
They are not keen on being filmed in case someone is caught on camera taking a bribe !!!!
They don't have to take bribes (although it probably does happen) as they have set the system up so that they can suck the public dry legally through perks etc.
To think that the work they do was once voluntary.
What Went Wrong ??????